FFXIV producer: Regaining the trust of fans “is very hard”

Square Enix believes damage caused by the original version of Final Fantasy XIV will take time to overturn. The game is set to relaunch with A Realm Reborn, but producer Naoki Yoshida is under no illusions.

In an interview with Eurogamer, Yoshida described the difficulty of getting the fans back on side.

“Losing your fans’ trust is very easy thing to do. Regaining it is very hard,” he said. “We believe Final Fantasy 14 is a starting point, and that players joining us will think ‘oh wow, this is great, I’ll see what they can do with Final Fantasy 15 or 16′.”

“Over a long time we’ll try and regain their trust, but it is something we as a company must put effort into, long-term.”

“That doesn’t mean we’re not going to try to get people’s trust back with this one game,” he added.

Yoshida believes the history of the franchise places more pressure on the team.

“In the 25-year history of the Final Fantasy series, there hasn’t been a Final Fantasy that has failed. We can’t – we just can’t – let this game end in failure.”

“At the original launch, we let down a lot of our fans. Fans around the world were expecting something great, and we feel like we let them down and we lost their trust. To regain that trust we have to show them we’re still behind the project, and that Square Enix is dedicated to making something that’s great. It’s kind of a crazy idea, but we’ve got to do it.”

Yoshida concluded by confirming the team aren’t going to rush A Realm Reborn. At this stage, it’s more important to get the game right.

“We’ll take our time and make something we feel lives up to the series’ name and then let other people play it. And when they realise ‘wow, this is really great game’, their voice will be heard and word will get out there.”